Useful Pages

Thursday, November 20, 2014

On November 19th, the National Book Foundation presented the winners of the National Book Award for 2014. Ursula Le Guin received the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters for her impact on American literature. Check out her remarks regarding book publishing in America which everyone is talking about!

Lydia is the favorite child of Marilyn and James Lee, a girl who inherited her mother's bright blue eyes and her
father's jet-black hair. Her parents are determined that Lydia
will fulfill the dreams they were unable to pursue. When Lydia's body is found in the local lake, the delicate balancing
act that has been keeping the Lee family together tumbles into
chaos, forcing them to confront the long-kept secrets that have been
slowly pulling them apart.

With its ability to make lists of companies from a 24 million business
database or find information on a particular company—including sales
volume, demographics, employee numbers, competitors’ reports, company tree—you are ahead of the crowd and on the road to success in pursuing answers.

You get the
picture! So take a tour of what ReferenceUSA has to offer you with your
library card or sign up for a class in Jackie’s Room on Tuesday,
November 18th from 2-3 pm!

At the same time Adolf Hitler was attempting to take over the western world, his armies were methodically seeking and hoarding the finest art treasures in Europe. The Fuehrer had begun cataloguing the art he planned to collect as well as the art he would destroy: "degenerate" works he despised. In a race against time, behind enemy lines, the Momuments Men, risked their lives scouring Europe to prevent the destruction of thousands of years of culture.

2. Nazi Scienceby Mark WalkerIn this book, Mark Walker examines the impact of Hitler's regime on science and, ultimately, on the pursuit of the German atomic bomb. Why did German nuclear physicists like Heisenberg and Weizsacker collaborate with the Nazis? How close were the Nazis to getting their own atomic bomb? What does this say about the role of science in the modern world?

The remarkable story of
James Howard "Billy" Williams, whose uncanny rapport with the world's
largest land animals transformed him from a carefree young man into the
charismatic war hero known as Elephant Bill. Elephant Bill's exploits
would earn him top military honors and the praise of famed Field Marshal
Sir William Slim. Part biography, part war epic, and part wildlife
adventure, Elephant Company is an inspirational narrative that
illuminates a little-known chapter in the annals of wartime heroism.

4. The Price of Gloryby Alistair Horne The battle of Verdun lasted ten months. It was a battle in which at least 700,000 men fell, along a front of fifteen miles. Its aim was less to defeat the enemy than bleed him to death and a battleground whose once fertile terrain is even now a haunted wilderness. Alistair Horne's classic work, shows that Verdun is a key to understanding the First World War to the minds of those who waged it, the traditions that bound them and the world that gave them the opportunity.

The First World War is one of history's greatest tragedies. In this remarkable and intimate account, author G. J. Meyer draws on exhaustive research to bring to life the story of how the Great War reduced Europe's mightiest empires to rubble, killed twenty million people, and cracked the foundations of the world we live in today. The First World War is one of history's greatest tragedies. Meyer brings to life the story of how the Great War reduced Europe's mightiest empires to rubble, killed twenty million people, and cracked the foundations of the world we live in today.

6. A Great and Glorious Adventureby Gordon CorriganIn this captivating new history of a conflict that raged for over a century, Gordon Corrigan reveals the horrors of battle and the machinations of power that have shaped a millennium of Anglo-French relations.The Hundred Years War was fought between 1337 and 1453 over English claims to both the throne of France by right of inheritance and large parts of the country that had been at one time Norman or, later, English. Corrigan writes a gripping narrative of the great battles and personalities of the period - Edward III, The Black Prince, Henry V, and Joan of Arc among them.